Not In Our Honor—Advocating Name Change for the KC Football Team

This partnership panel consisting of the Kansas City Indian Center and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Social Work faculty and students share their advocacy efforts to get the KC football organization to change the name, and stop the chop, drum and chat. It does not honor Native American people.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), though the guidance of Robert (Bob) Prue, has had long standing MSW student practicum site at the Kansas City Indian Center (KCIC), the area’s only multi-purpose social services agency for American Indians. KCIC has ongoing involvement with Not In Our Honor, founded by Rhonda LeValdo, and formed in 2005 by a group of Native American College students at the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. Collectively, these forces have continued to advocate against the use of Native American imagery in sports, in particular the KC football team and organization. The end goal is the immediate retirement of the Kansas City name, logo, and any and all Native American appropriation owned and used by the team. This includes, but is not limited to, the “big drum” at home events, abolishment of the “tomahawk chop” chant at all sports venues and any and all Native American appropriation that occurs within their franchise and in the football stadium.

A systematic review of 20 years of scholarly psychological studies demonstrate Native American mascots cause harm to Native American children and increase the explicit and implicit bias and racism against all minority people (Watt, Record & Roubideaux, 2022). The American Psychological Association has called for the immediate retirement of Native mascots. The National Congress of American Indians is conducting a decades-long campaign for the Elimination of Race-Based Native Logos, Mascots, Names, Behaviors and Practices. Many other Native organizations, as well as Native leaders, educators, historians, and artists have long called for the end of racist Native mascots/names.

The Partnership panel will share the actions they have taken, their succusses and setbacks, with particular attention to the involvement and development of UMKC’s MSW students (current and alumni). Among their activities was the hosting of the award winning documentary at UMKC, Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting, examining the movement that is ending the use of Native American names, logos, and mascots in the world of sports and beyond. The students’ stories reflect journeys of enlightenment, community organizing, activism, disappointment, determination - experiences informing their current practice. It is imperative to acknowledge the racism experienced by the Native American people living and working in Kansas City and surrounding area due to Kansas City football team’s imagery and branding permeating every facet of the Kansas City region.

Kansas City’s City Council unanimously approved a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis in 2019, acknowledging systemic racism occurs in Kansas City. Yet Kansas City continues to tolerate being represented on the global stage by a football team using stereotypes of a race of human beings, their sacred objects and imagery as its mascot. We need to take a hard look at all of our roles in allowing this to continue. We must end the racism and discrimination inherent in the team’s imagery and in the fan behavior they instigate, which occurs in public infrastructure and is funded with tax dollars.